The present invention is directed to a method, apparatus, and system for preparing images for integration and combining images into an integrated image. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method, apparatus, and system for compressing images in preparation for integration and combining the compressed images into an integrated image for display.
Short video clips, or barkers, advertising specific video content are common in the entertainment industry. For example, before a feature presentation, “movie watchers” see a myriad of movie previews, or barkers, that highlight particularly enjoyable parts of the advertised movie. The barkers used in this manner are intended to entice the viewers to choose to view advertised content.
Like the film industry, the broadcast television industry has also used barkers for advertising. In this environment, programmers send the barker to all viewers “tuned in” to a particular station. Hopefully, the barker will entice television viewers to view the advertised video.
Because of the effectiveness of barkers in both the film industry and broadcast television industry, they have become particularly appealing in the digital television industry.
Digital television networks enable two-way communication so that a subscriber can interact or “request” information from the network equipment. Typically, a menu—also called an interactive program guide (IPG) or electronic program guide (EPG)—is employed to list the content available for viewing. The IPG application enables a viewer to browse listings of available programming and associated information and to select content for viewing. The subscriber can utilize the menu to request additional information regarding the offerings.
Typically, the menu has a numeric listing by channel of broadcast television programming. Additionally, a subscriber may have access to narrowcast applications.
Narrowcast programming is point-to-point streaming of video from a storage point in the network to a specific subscriber. Narrowcast applications are made possible by compression techniques, e.g., the standards developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), that enable more content to be delivered to viewers with little or no degradation in picture quality. The resulting increase in transmission capacity allows narrowcast programming to be placed alongside broadcast programming for delivery to viewers.
A dominant narrowcast application is the delivery of content on demand (COD). This content may span many categories, including movies on demand (MOD), video on demand (VOD), subscription video on demand (SVOD), free on demand (FOD) and network-based digital video recording (NDVR).
The user experience provided by an IPG is critical to the success of narrowcast services, since the IPG controls access to the library of narrowcast content available to viewers. Typically, the IPG presents the subscriber with COD menus that usually begin with a general description of the offerings, from which the subscriber can drill-down to specific content to be viewed. The ability to deliver narrowcast content to viewers creates the opportunity to provide a targeted IPG, which allows advertisement and promotional content to be selected for and delivered to each viewer. This ability can greatly improve both the user experience of an IPG and the success of narrowcast services such as COD.
In this menuing environment, it is desirable to play barkers to entice the subscriber to watch a particular movie. If COD is available, the subscriber can order the content and watch it on his/her television. (Otherwise, the subscriber would need to rent, purchase, of view the movie from another source.)
In order for a barker to be viewed on a television set, it must be compressed by an encoder within the digital television network, transmitted to the subscriber's set-top box (STB) via the network, decompressed by a decoder within the STB, and rendered on the television. Typically, the first step, compressing the barker, is performed prior to distribution by the digital television network. Thus, the barker is typically maintained within the network servers in a compressed format.
Barkers generally contain full-screen images because video compressors accept and output only full-screen images. Because barkers are “full video” images, displaying barkers in a digital network along with the appropriate menu(s) can be particularly challenging. At some point, the barker must be scaled and properly positioned within the menu without losing resolution. In addition, this scaling and repositioning must be done in a manner that is not cost prohibitive, while remaining commercially viable. Many conventional STBs, such as the DCT 2000, have no video scaling capabilities. Even those STBs that are capable of scaling video do not have the capability to scale and reposition barkers effectively and efficiently.
There is thus a need for a technique and device for preparing images for integration and combining such images effectively and efficiently. Ideally, such integration will result in an image which may be displayed by an STB as an Advanced Menu or motion video integrated with at least one other motion video, such as a barker.